A newspaper report of a wedding in 1935

    While searching through the news papers for an ancestor I stumbled on a different one. 

    My great grandmother Everill Stacey married Charles Butler in 1887.  They had 3 children: Ernest was born in 1888, Lily in 1890 and after a gap of 10 years Edith was born in 1900.  Sadly, before Edith was a year old both her parents Charles and Everill have died of pneumonia.  

    The 3 children were then brought up by the families of both their parents. Lily was brought up by her maternal grandparents John and Mary Stacey in the village of Ravenfield in Yorkshire. Ernest and Edith were with their paternal grandparents, William and Annie Butler, also in Ravenfield. It is a small village so they must have been in contact with each other. 

    On 23rd March 1911 Lily married Frank Garner in St James' church in Ravenfield.  Frank was born in 1886 in Quadring in Lincolnshire. 

  Frank and Lily had 2 children.  Everill, named after her late grandmother, was born in 1911 and Arthur in 1912. This photo of Frank and Lily with their 2 children was probably taken just after World War 1, when Everill was about 7 and Arthur 6 years old. 

    The wedding report I found in the newspaper was that of Everill  Garner.  The print isn't very clear but it is just about legible.  Everill married Robert Beevers on 11th June 1935 at The Methodist Church in Bramley Yorkshire. 

    The person I was searching for  when I found this was the bridesmaid Letitia Stacey who was the first cousin once removed of Everill. In other words she was the daughter of her  grandmother Everill's brother's George.  Now to find out more about Letitia. 

January 2026

After doing further research I have additions to this post. In January 1922 Frank and Lily had another son named William who is named as one of the groomsmen in the above newspaper report.  The other addition is that the second bridesmaid, Doris Blinkhorn, married Lily's brother Arthur in December of that year. 

 

Emigration to Canada early 20th century

 One of the problems with researching family history is going off on a tangent that takes up your time. Not only that it brings surprises you never expected.

What started me off on this story is a newspaper article I found on Find My Past website.

Kelita Stacey was my g g grandmother Everil Stacey's eldest brother who was born in Ecclesfield, Yorkshire in 1961.  He died in November 1949 in Rotherham, Yorkshire and left  the sum of £1109 of which £200 was to go to his son George who had emigrated to Canada.  His cousin said he had gone to Canada a number of years ago with his sister and another brother.

This started me on the journey to find out when he emigrated.  I checked the passenger lists of ships going to Canada.  The first I found was William Stacey, Kelita's second son had emigrated at the age of 21 in 1911, sailing on 17th June on board a ship named Teutonic from Liverpool to Montreal.  There were no other Staceys with him.   My next find was John Charles Stacey 26, the eldest of Kelita's sons, who sailed on 2nd May 1914 on board a ship named Canada, also heading for Montreal.

The next find surprised me.  On 3rd August 1923 Annie Stacey 59 and Mary Stacey 26 sailed together on board a ship named Montclaire also going to Montreal.  These were Kelita's wife and daughter. Mary was a few years older than this, I believe she was 65.  Perhaps that was thought to be too old for sailing all that way so she bent the truth a bit.

The last one I found was George Stacey born 1995, who is the one I had been searching for.  He sailed on 3rd October 1924 on board the Canada heading for Montreal.

Amazingly  Kelita's wife and all his children had gone to Canada and left him home alone.  I doubt I will ever know why.   I do know that John Charles did return as he was living in England with his father in 1939 when the 1939 register was taken prior to WW2.  

Another task for me now to try and find out what happened to those living in Canada.

William Stacey was living in Vancouver, British Columbia on the 1921 Canadian census. He was living in lodgings and working as a "motorman." On 7th May 1928 he married  Margaret Welsh a 42 year old spinster in Vancouver.  They were still living in Vancouver on 1931 census but don't have any children recorded at that time. He was still a motorman.  Margaret died on 5th January 1953.William died on 22nd May 1981 at the age of 91 years. He was buried in Ocean View Burial Park in Vancouver

Name	William Stacey
Sex	Male
Age	91
Birth Date	09 Dec 1889
Birth Year (Estimated)	1890
Birthplace	Yorkshire, England
Marital Status	Widowed
Father's Name	Kelita Stacey
Mother's Name	Anne
Event Type	Death
Event Date	22 May 1981
Event Place	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

 I also found George and his sister Mary in Vancouver. According to the 1931 census they were living together in a lodging house.  George was working as a labourer in road  construction and Mary was listed as a lodger. He died 10 years after his father Kelita, I wonder if he ever received  his inheritance.

George Stacey

Sex Male

Age 65

Birth Date 02 Apr 1894

Birth Year (Estimated) 1894

Birthplace, England

Marital Status Single

Father's Name Kelita Stacey

Mother's Name Anne Ward

Event Type Death

Event Date 17 Nov 1959

Event Place Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

 I have been unable to find their mother Annie on the census but later found her death on  3rd February 1931 which was probably before the 1931 census was recoded.

Name	Ann Stacey
Sex	Female
Age	74
Birth Date	03 Nov 1856
Birth Year (Estimated)	1857
Birthplace	, England
Marital Status	Married
Father's Name	John Ward
Mother's Name	Ann Spooner
Event Type	Death
Event Date	08 Feb 1931
Event Place	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The photo on the left is Annie Stacey (Ward) Kelita's wife.

The photo below is Mary and William Stacey in Canada in 1969 with their cousin Annie Jennings (right), who visited them from England. The photo of Annie Stacey given to her by William 

An unusual but rather sad story I think.  Why was Kelita left home, did he just refuse to go and nobody bothered about him or was there a big family rift that broke them up.  Was John Charles the only one who cared so he went back home to stay with him.  William  was the only one who married and as far as I can see he didn't have any children.  I have been unable, as yet to find out what happened to Mary.  The brothers seemed to be looking after her as she wasn't living alone. That line of the family probably ended here. 

I need to find out what happened to John Charles after 1939. 

More Bibles.

My grandmother, Edith Butler was sadly orphaned  before her first birthday when both her parents, Charles and Everil Butler, died of bronchopneumonia in 1900 and 1901; this was before the days of antibiotics. 

Edith herself also died at the age of 25 following an accident at home when her apron caught fire as she was dusting the mantelpiece. My mother was 3 at the time so did not remember her mother.  She did have her Bible and prayer book. 

Edith had written two addresses in the Bible, the first being Rose Cottage, Ravenfield which was their home address and also Leyburn Hall, which I think is where she worked in service.  It also says given her by her loving grandmother.

The next page she has written  from John 15 verses 13 & 14

Inside the back cover she has also written quotes. 

The next book I have is a Holy Communion Book which Edith received on her Confirmation in 1915 at the age of 15. 

I also have Edith's book of Common Prayer and Hymns.

I think Edith must have been very fond of this one as she had inscribed messages inside both covers.

Difficult to read but as far as I can make out it says:

 "Steal not this book for fear of shame

for here you see the owner's name

Edith Butler

For if you do the Lord will say

Where is the book you stole that day. 

Inside the back cover this one says

Edith Butler 

Ravenfield

Not to be taken away. 

This last book is not a Bible of prayer book but it is a Christian book published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.  I think I read this book as a child but can't remember the story.  

It was given to Edith at Christmas 1908 as either a prize or Christmas gift from St James' Church, Ravenfield

 Mum has written her name inside the cover of this one. Hilda Stobart whose name is above mum's was mum's cousin.  Don't know why her name is there though. 

Ravenfield, then and now.

More old postcards of Ravenfield Village taken in about 1905 together with descriptions written by Mr G E Osborn in 1978. Also photographs of the same places that I took myself in 2006.  I am sure there have been a lot of changes since Mr Osborn wrote his descriptions 34 years ago.

Photograph taken in 2006

Photograph taken in 2006

Bridge House

The Staceys lived in a cottage in Ravenfield which was next to the school house.  You can see them standing outside the house in my page header.  When the railway came to Ravenfield in the first decade of the 20th century the cottage became known as Bridge House.

This is a postcard  showing the cottage before the railway arrived.  The bridge crossed the road at the end where the trees are.  Must be Staceys standing at the gate but who I do not know.

I do not have a picture of the   railway bridge  but found a website with one.  Tried to contact the site owner for a copy but their address is no longer current so have linked to the website.  It must have spoilt the peace of such a small village to have a railway going through and especially for the Staceys living so near.  Would it have been granted planning permission today?

Below is a picture I took in 2006 of Bridge house from the same aspect, without Bridge again as it was demolished at sometime, maybe in the 1960s with the "Beeching Cuts"

Ravenfield is still a small village and has been winner of Britain in Bloom competition.  There are more photographs and information on the Old Ravenfield website.

One of my distant cousins sent me copies of old postcards of Ravenfield dated around 1906 and each one was accompanied by a description written in 1978 by a Mr G E Osborn who was a resident there.

This is a view of Bridge House from the other side.  I am sure the Staceys are standing outside on this one.  If you enlarge the picture by clicking on it you will see who I think is John on the right and Mary standing in the road with her hand on her hip.  Don't know who the very pregnant lady is or the children.  Below is a copy of the description supplied by Mr Osborn. 

Below is a picture of Bridge House that I took in 2002

This is a picture of the Old School House, mentioned above, that I took in 2006.  Today this house is for sale for £360,000.  Pity it is too far away as it looks like a very nice house from the estate agent's description. Wouldn't it be great to live next door to the house where your ancestors lived and in such a lovely small village.  (Population about 2000 now) 

George Stacey

George was the youngest of the Stacey children.  He was born in Rotherham 1882 and died in 1958 in Ravenfield.  He married Phoebe Griffiths, who was welsh, in Cardigan, Wales in 1909.  He brought Phoebe to live in Ravenfield.  How they met I do not know as Wales was quite a distance at that time.  Much closer now with modern transport but not as easy to get to at the beginning of the 20th century.  I have acquired several photos of George and Phoebe and this first one, I like to think, was of their wedding.  Why else would you wear such a marvelous hat.

Next is Phoebe with their their first child George Griffiths Stacey (known as Griff) on the occasion of his baptism at St James' Church in Ravenfield on 6th June 1910.  What a beautiful christening gown he is wearing.

These are pictures of George and Phoebe with their children, George Griffiths and Letitia Mary. Letitia was born on 19th May 1914.  The Photo on the right was taken earliest and I would have put it first, if only I could work out how to move them round the page. I can sometimes but only by a fluke. The picture of the children on their own looks as though it might have been over-painted as Letitia's dress is a delicate shade of green.  It is lovely to see the fashions of the period on these old photographs.  Letitia is also pictured on another post with her Aunt Kate.

More about the Staceys

I was eager to post my first page yesterday so now need to tell you more about the Staceys.  John's father Aaron worked as a woodman and John followed in his footsteps.  Not quite sure what this entailed but I think they must have managed an area of woodland.  Maybe they coppiced trees and perhaps were responsible for fencing.  The area they lived in was in the vicinity of Wentworth - Woodhouse which was a very large house and  Park not far from Rotherham.  I like to think they worked on the estate but have no evidence to substantiate this.
I read a very interesting book, Black Diamonds, by Catherine Bailey, which was about the history of the Wentworth -Fitzwilliam family who owned the estate, and apparently most of the household records were deliberately destroyed on a bonfire in 1972.

This is another photo of  John and Mary. I don't know when it was taken. The photos I have of them were sent to me by another of their descendants who I met via the Internet whilst doing my research.

I have found records of John and Mary having eight children but according the the 1911 census they also had one who died in infancy.  The eldest, Kelita, was born in 1862 and he also became a woodman like his father and grandfather.

They then had a run of daughters.  Ann in 1865, Kate in 1867 and next my great grandmother Everil who was born in 1869.  Next came Elizabeth born in 1871 and then Mary in 1873.  Two boys followed, John in 1875 and finally George in 1882.  Maybe the long gap between John and George was the time when they had and lost their 9th child.


By the time of the 1891 census John and Mary had settled in the village of Ravenfield not far from Rotherham. They lived in a cottage on School Lane next to the schoolhouse. The photograph at the top of my blog shows them standing outside the cottage with four of their children. I think these are, from left to right, John, Elizabeth, George and Mary.

I will tell you more about Ravenfield and some of their children later.